Blog Band – Page 56 – Fridayeveryday

Virus silences Cantonese opera, but just for a while

A major Cantonese opera event was due to take place in Hong Kong this week. But the Arts Festival's 50th anniversary celebration of the signature Cantonese operas of Sun Ma Sze Tsang, has been postponed due to the city's Covid precautions. The star, who died in 1997, was due to have his works interpreted by…

February 23, 20220Comments ByLee Chack Fan

Culture Life

There’s a pharmacy in your kitchen, tradition says

AN OLD MAXIM says: “Food is the medicine you take every day.” This is a relatively new idea in the west, popping up in books like Food Pharmacy (2018). But food therapy is an old belief in China, known Shi Liao. The Chinese have long believed that all naturally occurring foods, including fruits, vegetables, meat…

February 22, 20220Comments ByH.C. Lu

Opinion

Why Putin opted to support ‘independents’, not invasion

THE RUSSIAN LEADER called the bluff of his Western critics by pointedly NOT invading Ukraine at the precise time and place that they had specified, according to many media reports. But then he did something even more surprising -- on the day of writing this article, the news media is full of reports saying…

February 22, 20220Comments ByNury Vittachi

Life

Most HK age groups hit the 90% jabbed mark

MOST AGE GROUPS in Hong Kong have reached, surpassed or are fast approaching a 90 per cent jabbed rate, with families way ahead. PARENTS LEAD: “Mum and dad” age groups are ahead, with the 50-somethings at 92% and 40-somethings at a remarkable 96.6%. GRANDPARENTS JOINING: The oldies have been slow but are catching…

February 21, 20220Comments ByNury Vittachi

Opinion

Finding a Hong Kong answer to the Covid problem

HONG KONG HAS BEEN caught in the fifth wave of COVID-19 since the start of the Lunar New Year, with daily infections surpassing the highest numbers seen since the outbreak started two years ago. Many voices have questioned the feasibility of Hong Kong's zero-covid policy, pointing to the fact that countries that previously had…

February 21, 20220Comments ByHenry Ho

Culture

Tai chi: the fighting steps that bring us peace

THE GRACEFUL CHINESE exercise known as Tai Chi Chaun is gradually spreading around the world - and even into the fictional world of Hollywood movies. “I love the idea of having a place I can go every day. I want the connection, the excitement. I wanna be challenged,” says Robert De Niro, playing a retired executive…

February 21, 20220Comments ByH.C. Lu

Features

Bridge-builder reveals childhood illness that changed his life

ONE OF HONG KONG'S best-known businessman-politicians, Bernard Chan, revealed how a chronic health problem hit him as a teenager—and how learning to paint with a tiny bottle of correction fluid got him back on track. The convenor of the Executive Council, Hong Kong’s top governing body, told a TV interviewer that he was hit by…

February 20, 20220Comments ByNury Vittachi

Life

So was it the most-watched or least-watched Winter Olympics?

THERE WERE GLOBAL campaigns from the United States to make the Beijing Winter Olympics the “least-watched” Winter Olympic Games in history. Yet the International Olympic Committee indicated these were the most-watched such games—a line happily echoed by Chinese people on social media and China's state media. What’s the real story? As usual, simplification is misleading,…

February 20, 20220Comments ByNury Vittachi

News

Wave of pledges as Hong Kong people pull together

YOUNG PEOPLE, property tycoons, pop stars and truck drivers are pulling together to fight the Omicron wave in Hong Kong. There was a wave of pledges yesterday. Here are 12 things that people are doing. Hong Kong youth groups said they’d co-ordinate a free transportation service to move nurses, doctors, and medical goods Property tycoon Peter Lee Ka-kit…

February 19, 20220Comments ByFriday Writers